Drill positioning system for jumbo carrier unit

ABSTRACT

A rock drilling and bolting vehicle includes a drill feed adapted to slide on a drill feed rail and a bolter feed adapted to slide on a bolter feed rail. The vehicle includes a first wireless or ultrasonic transmitter disposed on the drill feed rail for transmitting a first signal, a second wireless or ultrasonic transmitter disposed on the drill feed for transmitting a second signal. The vehicle includes first, second and third wireless or ultrasonic receivers each capable of receiving the first signal and the second signal. A processor coupled to the receivers processes the signals to determine positions of the first and second wireless or ultrasonic transmitters.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is the first application filed for the present invention.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to mining equipment and, in particular, to rock drilling and rock bolting.

BACKGROUND

In a mine, ground support, e.g. rock bolts and screening, is used to prevent rock falls. Several different types of rock bolts may be used but all require that holes be drilled in the rock first. This is done with equipment known as a rock drill which may be part of a drilling jumbo also having a bolter. To drill a hole in the rock to install ground support, a stinger is placed against the rock face (which is called “stinging the face”) and then a hole is drilled into the rock. The unit is then indexed to install the rock bolt as ground support.

Conventionally, the step of indexing from the drill to the bolter is problematic since it may result in misalignment of the bolter relative to the drilled hole. Conventionally, the drill feed must be retracted (by moving a feed extension cylinder or boom) to remove the drill feed from the rough uneven rock face before indexing. Ground support operations can become inefficient, time-consuming and expensive when misalignment occurs.

Various drill positioning technologies enable the position of the drill to be determined and controlled for precise drilling and bolting operations.

For rock face drilling, the traditional way of calculating the drill steel position is through sensors located on various articulations of the articulated jumbo unit or in the hydraulic cylinders that displace the articulations. The position of the drill steel driven by the rock drill is then calculated relative to the movement of the boom. However, this technique becomes inaccurate when components wear. Furthermore, since the sensors transmit signals to a controller through wires running along the boom, the wires are prone to being damaged or severed, thus increasing downtime and maintenance costs. A need therefore exists for a solution to this technical problem.

SUMMARY

In general, the present invention provides a technique and system for positioning a drill steel for rock drilling, particularly in the context of installing rock bolts to provide ground support in an underground mine.

Accordingly, an inventive aspect of the present disclosure is a rock drilling and bolting vehicle having a drill feed rail, a bolter feed rail, a drill feed adapted to slide on the drill feed rail; and a bolter feed adapted to slide on the bolter feed rail. The vehicle includes a first transmitter for transmitting a first signal through air, the first transmitter being disposed on the drill feed rail, a second transmitter for transmitting a second signal through the air, the second transmitter being on the drill feed. The vehicle further includes a first receiver disposed on the vehicle for receiving the first signal and the second signal, a second receiver disposed on the vehicle for receiving the first signal and the second signal, and a third receiver disposed on the vehicle for receiving the first signal and the second signal. The vehicle includes a processor communicatively coupled to the first, second and third receivers to process the first and second signals to determine a first position of the first transmitter and a second position of the second transmitter.

This summary is provided to highlight certain significant inventive aspects but is not intended to be an exhaustive or limiting definition of all inventive aspects of the disclosure. Other inventive aspects may be disclosed in the detailed description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in combination with the appended drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a drill jumbo equipped with a wireless drill-positioning system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the drill jumbo of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a side elevation view of the drill jumbo of FIG. 1.

It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals. It should furthermore be noted that the drawings are not necessarily to scale.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1-3 depict a jumbo carrier vehicle generally designated by reference numeral 10. This jumbo carrier vehicle is designed for drilling holes in rock faces and for installing rock bolts into the holes in order to provide ground support in an underground mine. The jumbo carrier vehicle depicted by way of example in FIGS. 1-3 is also known as a face-drilling rig, rock-bolting jumbo, bolting rig, rock bolter, drilling jumbo or rock drilling and bolting vehicle. The rock drilling and bolting vehicle 10 in this illustrated example has a chassis 12 and a plurality of wheels 14 rotationally mounted to, or otherwise supported by, the chassis. In the example of FIGS. 1-3, the chassis is a single rigid chassis although in other embodiments the chassis may be an articulated chassis. In the example of FIG. 1-3, the rock drilling and bolting vehicle has four wheels although the vehicle may have a different number of wheels in alternative embodiments.

The rock drilling and bolting vehicle may have an internal combustion engine, e.g. a diesel engine, in an engine compartment 16. The engine may be coupled via a transmission (not shown) to provide traction, e.g. four-wheel drive traction, for the vehicle. At the rear of the vehicle are optional cable reels 18 for electrical cables. Multiple stabilizing jacks 20 may optionally be provided to stabilize the vehicle during drilling and bolting operations. A protective roof or canopy 22 may be provided for the operator thereby defining a cab for the operator. Alternatively, the vehicle may have a fully or partially enclosed cab with an access door and windshield.

The rock drilling and bolting vehicle 10 depicted by way of example in FIGS. 1-3 has a single boom 30 supporting a single rock drill. Although the illustrated embodiment is a single-boom jumbo, the inventive concept may be applied to twin-boom jumbos or multi-boom jumbos. The boom 30 is rotationally connected at a first end to a support bracket 32 mounted to a forward-facing surface of the vehicle. The boom 30 is a connected at a second end to a beam support 34 that supports a feed beam or feed rail 36. The feed rail 36 has rear stop 38 and a front stop 40. The feed rail is dimensioned to receive a rock drill 42. The rock drill 42 slides over the rail on a rail-mounted drill cradle. The rock drill 42 has a chuck that holds a drill steel 44 that is further supported by two spaced-apart supports or cradles, e.g. traveling cradles 46, 48. The drill steel has a drill bit at its forward end.

The rock drilling and bolting vehicle 10 includes a wireless drill-positioning system 50 for positioning the drill. The wireless drill-positioning system 50 includes a plurality of transmitters and a plurality of receivers. In the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1-3, the wireless drill-positioning system 50 includes two transmitters 51 and three receivers 52. The transmitters are spaced-apart from the receivers to measure a time of flight for each signal to travel from each respective transmitter to each of the receivers. A first transmitter 51 is disposed on the drill feed, e.g. on the rear stop 38. A second transmitter is disposed on the drill cradle 42 or other movable portion of the rock drill. Optionally, a third transmitter may also be disposed on the drill feed, e.g. on the front stop 40. A first receiver 52 is disposed on the canopy 22 in the illustrated embodiment. Second and third receivers 52 are disposed on either side of the cab in the illustrated embodiment. The first, second and third receivers may be disposed elsewhere on the vehicle in other embodiments. Additional transmitters may be added in other embodiments to increase accuracy. Additional receivers may also be added in other embodiments to improve accuracy. The wireless drill-positioning system includes a microprocessor or microcontroller, e.g. a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), that calculates the distance or displacement from the received signals. For example, through analysis of the time it takes for the transmitted signals to reach the receivers, a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) or other processor can calculate the exact location of the drill steel with respect to the rock drilling and bolting vehicle. This enables the operator to precisely position the drill steel at a desired location and with a desired orientation.

The wireless drill-positioning system therefore enables a drill feed and rock drill on an underground drilling jumbo unit to be precisely positioned in three dimensional space for precise drilling operations. The vehicle thus does not require wired sensors for positioning the drill steel. Wires for wired sensors which are strung along the boom of the jumbo unit and which are prone to damage are thus eliminated.

In one embodiment, the transmitters are ultrasound signal transmitters, i.e. ultrasonic distance sensors or ultrasonic rangefinders. These may be operating at three different frequencies (hereinafter “ultrasonic signal transmitters”) and the receivers are ultrasound receivers (or ultrasonic signal receivers). The ultrasound transmitters are battery-powered whereas the signal receivers may be powered by the vehicle electrical system. Ultrasound rangers can measure distances through dusty conditions in underground mines. These may operate, for example, the range of about 40 kHz-60 kHz although other frequencies may be utilized depending on the operating range parameters.

In another embodiment, the transmitters are wireless radiofrequency transmitters operating at three different frequencies and the receivers are wireless radiofrequency receivers.

As shown in FIGS. 1-3, two or more transmitters are located along each end of the feed beam to determine the position and posture of the feed beam, and a single transmitter is located on the drill cradle or, alternatively, at the two travelling cradles in order to reference the drill steel position and depth. In the illustrated embodiment, a receiver is located at the top and center of the jumbo carrier unit by way of example. Additional receivers are located on either side of the cab as shown by way of example. The processor (e.g. Programmable Logic Controller) may be located inside the cab of the jumbo carrier unit or elsewhere in the vehicle. The PLC is designed to gather data from the receivers and to provide the operator with the exact positioning of the drill steel. Note that additional receivers may be added to the jumbo carrier unit, and that additional transmitters may also be added to the feed beam assembly in order to increase signal reception and accuracy when the drill feed and boom are in motion.

In another embodiment, the system may employ as few as two transmitters, i.e. a first transmitter connected to (and movable with) the drill cradle that represents the position of the drill steel and a second transmitter connected to the drill feed rail. Knowing the position and orientation of these two points in three-dimensional space relative to the vehicle-mounted sensors enables the processor of the system to determine the absolute position of the drill steel in three-dimensional space. Knowing the rate of forward advance of the drill and the amount of force applied to the drill steel can be used to quantify the rock properties. The rock properties can be used to adjust or control drill parameters for the next (adjacent) hole to be drilled. Drill parameters may include the applied force to provide a given rate of advance, RPM, type of drill bit, etc.

The position and posture (i.e. angle or orientation) of the boom may be determined. The relative position of the drill feed along the rail may be determined. In addition to three-dimensional positioning, the processor may calculate the rate of advance (forward speed) of the drill steel. The processor may furthermore calculate the acceleration or deceleration of the drill steel. The position, speed, and acceleration of the drill steel may thus be controlled by the processor based on the data received. The processor may thus provide feedback control to the drill feed to regulate its speed or acceleration. The processor may also enable the operator to preset the desired depth of the hole to be drilled (e.g. for cases when the drill steel is longer than the rock bolt) to avoid unnecessarily deep drilling.

The wireless positioning system may be adapted for use with a bolt feed as well as a drill feed. Transmitters may be disposed on the front and rear stops of the bolter feed rail and on the bolter feed. The same receivers may be used for both the bolting and drilling feeds.

The wireless positioning system may also be adapted for use with explosive loading. In other words, an explosive may be loaded into a drilled hole after measuring and recording the position and orientation of the hole that has been drilled. Once the hole position, depth and orientation are known from the drilling step, the explosive loader may be automatically guided to the hole to permit remote automated loading of the explosive into the hole.

Different bolt systems may be used. For example, the bolt system may be configured to install any suitable mechanical rock bolt, cement or resin rebar, Split Set® bolt, Swellex® bolt, Dywidag® bolt, or cable bolt. The wireless positioning system may be used with a single boom, dual boom or multi-boom jumbo unit.

The system may optionally include an ultrasound rock-face mapping unit which emits ultrasound waves and receives the reflected ultrasound waves. An ultrasound sensor uses an analog-to-digital converter to convert the analog reflected waves into a digital signal that is then processed by a digital signal processor (DSP). A mapping algorithm converts the processed signals into a map of the rock face.

A positioning module uses the map and the position data to accurately position the drill relative to the rock face. The rock face imager may also be used to capture an image of the rock bolts after installation.

As an alternative technique for mapping the rock face, a miner or other operator may hold a battery-operated handheld transmitter mounted on a pole at various locations, e.g. at each of the four corners of the tunnel or at various points on a rock face. The transmitter sends a signal that the receivers capture to determine a position of the transmitter at the rock face. The processor collects this data to map the face to be drilled. The operator can collect as many data points over the rock face as desired to provide a desired level of detail. Alternatively, the third transmitter on the forward end of the drill feed may be used to map the rock face. The forward end of the drill feed is moved to various spots of the drilling face. At each spot, the transmitter at the forward end of the drill feed transmits a signal to enable the three receivers and processor to measure the three-dimensional position.

This wireless positioning technology may be used to measure the drilling depth of the hole. With a transmitter at the end of the feed beam and a receiver on one of the moving cradles, the processor can calculate the distance travelled, which represents the hole depth. Alternatively, the system may include a transmitter and receiver combination at the rear of the (feed beam or somewhere else along the feed beam) and have a target (signal reflector) on one of the moving cradles. By measuring the time of flight of the signal to and from the reflector/target, the processor may calculate the displacement, and optionally the speed and acceleration, of the drill steel relative to the beam, thereby permitting the processor to track the movement of the drill steel. The displacement of the target represents the hole depth. This could also be used on surface drilling to determine a hole depth.

The vehicle may include a vehicle positioning system (VPS) to determine its own position inside the mine. This VPS may rely on interior radiofrequency (RF) beacons or dead reckoning techniques involving one or more accelerometers. The vehicle may include a rangefinder (e.g. laser or ultrasonic rangefinder) to measure a distance from the vehicle to the rock face. Multiple sensors may be provided to position the vehicle a desired distance and orientation relative to the rock face. Once the vehicle is positioned relative to the rock face, the vehicle positions the rock drill and drill steel at the desired location on the rock face. This desired rock bolt location may be provided by a rock bolt distribution map (i.e. a bolting pattern or plan) which may be stored or programmed in a memory coupled to the processor of the vehicle. Alternatively, the bolting pattern/plan may be transmitted to a data transceiver of the vehicle from a command station or control center remote from the vehicle.

An ultrasonic probe for non-destructive testing may be provided to conduct pulse-echo tests by contacting the free end of the bolt. This probe is capable of determining the bolt length and is also capable of identifying defects in the rock bolt such as necking, deformation, and loss of resin encapsulation. The vehicle may use the ultrasonic probe for non-destructive testing of the rock bolt after installation to verify that the bolt has been properly installed. In one embodiment, the vehicle may transmit a bolt installation report to a remote recipient (e.g. command station or control center) after testing is complete. The report indicates whether the bolt is properly installed or not and may provide engineering data for the mining engineer to review, save, compile or use at a later date for follow-up testing. If a bolt is not properly installed, remedial action may be taken. For example, the vehicle may further receive an updated bolting pattern in response to sending a report notifying of a poorly installed bolt.

In other embodiments, it will be appreciated that the transmitters and receivers may be reversed. Instead of placing the transmitters on the feed rail and drill cradle, the transmitters may be placed on the vehicle and the receivers may be placed on the feed rail and drill cradle. In this arrangement, the received data is transmitted wirelessly by a separate RF transmitter in each of the receivers to the processor in the vehicle to enable the processor to compute the positions of the receivers. In the main embodiment, the receivers are disposed on the vehicle so that these may be wired to the processor, which eliminates the need to have wireless transmission capabilities to relay the data.

The use of the terms “a”, “an” and “the” and similar articles or referents in the context of describing the invention (especially in the context of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms “comprising”, “having”, “including” and “containing” are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning “including, but not limited to”) unless otherwise noted. The term “connected” is to be construed as partly or wholly contained within, attached to, or joined together, even if there is something intervening. Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate embodiments of the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the invention.

The present invention has been described in terms of specific embodiments, examples, implementations and configurations which are intended to be exemplary or illustrative only. Other variants, modifications, refinements and applications of this innovative technology will become readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art who have had the benefit of reading this disclosure. Such variants, modifications, refinements and applications fall within the ambit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the scope of the exclusive right sought by the Applicant for the present invention is intended to be limited solely by the appended claims and their legal equivalents. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A rock drilling and bolting vehicle comprising: a drill feed rail; a bolter feed rail; a drill feed adapted to slide on the drill feed rail; a bolter feed adapted to slide on the bolter feed rail; a first transmitter for transmitting a first signal through air, the first transmitter being disposed on the drill feed rail; a second transmitter for transmitting a third signal through the air, the second transmitter being disposed on the drill feed; a first receiver disposed on the vehicle for receiving the first signal and the second signal; a second receiver disposed on the vehicle for receiving the first signal and the second signal; a third receiver disposed on the vehicle for receiving the first signal and the second signal; and a processor communicatively coupled to the first, second and third receivers to process the first and second signals to determine a first position of the first transmitter and a second position of the second transmitter.
 2. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first and second transmitters are ultrasonic signal transmitters and wherein the first, second and third receivers are ultrasonic signal receivers.
 3. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first and second transmitters are wireless radiofrequency transmitters and wherein the first, second and third receivers are wireless radiofrequency receivers.
 4. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a rock face imager for generating an image of the rock face and wherein the processor is communicatively connected to the rock face imager to position the drill feed relative to the rock face.
 5. The vehicle as claimed in claim 4 wherein the rock face imager comprises an ultrasonic transmitter and sensor for mapping the rock face.
 6. The vehicle as claimed in claim 4 wherein the rock face imager comprises a laser scanner for mapping the rock face.
 7. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1 further comprising an ultrasonic probe for non-destructive testing of installed rock bolts.
 8. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a data transceiver for receiving rock face map data showing a desired rock bolt location, a vehicle position system for positioning the vehicle relative to the rock face and wherein the processor is further configured to automatically position the rock drill at the desired rock bolt location.
 9. The vehicle as claimed in claim 8 further comprising an ultrasonic probe for non-destructive testing of the rock bolt after installation.
 10. The vehicle as claimed in claim 9 further comprising transmitting a bolt installation report to a remote recipient after testing is complete.
 11. The vehicle as claimed in claim 10 further comprising receiving an updated bolting pattern in response to sending a report notifying of a poorly installed bolt. 